Thanks! You make some very good points that normal people (ie someone who isn`t an insurance coy.) would probably not even think of. Perhaps it`s another case of "if it seems too good to be true it probably is".

Experienced a new insurance company ploy recently. My motor insurance renewal quote having gone through the roof, I shopped around on the net and found a much cheaper quote but, in entering my data I omitted to notice that the requirement for no claims was 10 years rather than the usual 5/6.

Having had no claims for well over 2/3 decades I assumed the new insurer would contact my previous insurers to confirm. This they did but then advised me they could only confirm the 1 year my previous insurance had run, plus the 6 years that that company had required, thus my total provable no claims amounted to 7 years. I pointed out that although I had the previous years document, I had disposed of older documents as, I assume most of us do. Anyway, I had to pay a further premium to get no claims protection and discount. From this it appears that were I to stay with this insurer it would take another three claim free years to meet their criteria !

Just thought this might be of interest! By the way, in moving to different insurers each year, and always having taken no claims protection usually covering no more than one/two possible claims within a five year period, would this protection be valid if one had a knock and then moved to a new insurer on renewal? These points make one wonder whether the advice to change companies each year to obtain the best quotes is advisable?

I`ve recently had a renewal notice for one of three cars I insure, all with LV. The amount they wanted was £475 for a Volvo V70.

Out of interest I went on their website & filled in an application on line. I got back a quote for £245.

I phoned them up & asked if this was how they rewarded customer loyalty(I`ve been with them for over 30 years). I also pointed out that I was supposed to be getting preferential rates as the member of an affiliated motoring organisation.They looked at my premiums & said they could reduce the £875 for the 3 cars to £741, the premium for the V70 being reduced to around £400. I asked how they could justify a difference of £155 on the revised quote for 3 cars, or £230 on the original quote; why had they not quoted £400 originally?

I was told the policy on line wasn`t the same as the one I was being offered it, no european cover, no protected no claims etc. I pointed out that I had been able to tayIor the policy until it matched exacty the original policy & had been quoted an additional £30+ for the extras, the original on line quote being just under £200. At this point I was told "There`s nothing to prevent you from applying on line and getting the cover at the reduced rate"

"What even if the implication is that this is for new customers only?" "Absolutely, cancel the renewal & apply on line" This might, of course, have been the response of a poor girl who could offer no explanation other than "because they`re out to extract whatever they think they can get away with/ they`ve been given a licence to print money/ they just make it up as they go along...."

Hmm! excellent point hope to get an expert on here later to solve this - meanwhile BUMP!

Regards,

Paul

The infamous Martin Lewis states that you should never simply renew your current policy as you will almost certainly get a cheaper quote if you apply as a 'new customer'. But surely this is illegal as you are NOT a new customer but an 'existing customer' (and they must surely be able to easily see this from their records)?